No one is shocked these days when U.S. President Donald Trump calls Canada the "51st state" or refers to Prime Minister Mark Carney as a "governor." But Trump's habit of occasionally targeting Canada with crude insults has become much more common among rank-and-file Republicans in recent weeks. As Trump watches his poll numbers sink under the weight of controversial policies...
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is headed to Washington, D.C., this week for meetings, a spokesperson for his office tells CTV News. He’ll be joined by Canada’s chief trade negotiator to the United States, Janice Charette. The trip comes amid new tensions in the nearly 18-month trade war, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening another slate of tariffs last week...
Maia Johnson is emerging as a rising star who is said to have played a key role in the recent staffing changes, and is already 'making her mark by streamlining processes' within the Prime Minister's Office, say Liberal sources. Prime Minister Mark Carney recently reshuffled the senior ranks of his Prime Minister’s Office, bringing in new advisers and promoting others...
Cars, trucks will make their way back and forth after Canada-only Friday ceremony. Gordie Howe's family were the first passenger vehicle to go across the new international border span on Monday, says the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA). Tecumseh trucking company Onfreight Logistics is poised to be the first commercial vehicle to cross.
As civil servants raced to finalize the purchase of a private jet for Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford was crisscrossing the province on an OPP plane. Schedules obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws reveal that, in a month and a half, Ford took four short-haul domestic flights on the plane and chartered a jet to travel to Texas...
The latest Weekly Federal Tracker from Liaison Strategies shows the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, holding a 9-point lead over Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives as three federal by-elections get underway. Among decided and leaning voters, the Liberals stand at 44%, followed by the Conservatives at 35%, the NDP at 11%, the Bloc Québécois at 5%, the Green Party...
Canadians are experiencing a “déjà vu all over again” moment as President Donald Trump announces tariffs on Canadian goods. This time, however, Trump is relying on an obscure, nearly 100-year-old provision of the Tariff Act of 1930 to target a broader swath of the Canadian economy. Despite this, Canadians’ long-established resolve as to how to respond to the latest salvo...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced three federal by-elections for Monday, August 31st. The government needs to win at least one of these to hold onto its majority status in the House of Commons. In two of the three seats, the suspense is minimal. It’s unlikely that the Liberals could lose either Beaches-East York or North Vancouver-Capilano — previously held...
So, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is making an image adjustment. He has decided to exchange his signature smirk and the snarky remarks that go along with it for a more positive pose. He is now offering to work with all parties to prevent American tariffs on Canadian exports from happening. “Conservatives are here to help and fight for Canada,” he...
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree committed Monday "to get to the bottom" of the arrest of a Canadian in Europe on spying charges. The Belgian federal prosecutor's office said Saturday that "a Canadian national of Chinese origin" had been arrested on charges of espionage and participation in a criminal organization. The suspect, who was not named in the office's statement...
Beginning Friday, Albertans will be able to pay out-of-pocket for diagnostic screening tests, including an MRI and an ultrasound, and without a doctor's referral. The new change can help those who pay get a faster cancer diagnosis, and improve their chances of survival, without increasing wait times for others, the government said Monday. Premier Danielle Smith said Albertans can self-refer...
It sure looks like Mark Carney is auditioning to be the next leader of the U.S. Democratic Party. As a Canadian Member of Parliament who represents working families impacted by U.S. tariffs, I want to know why Carney is more interested in playing American politics than being the prime minister of Canada.
It all started about fifty years ago, in the backyard of my parents’ house in La Tuque, a small town roughly 130 kilometres north of Shawinigan. Our home sat on the edge of town, and just behind it was a gorgeous forest — my playground, my refuge, my world. Then one day, a work crew arrived and began cutting it...
Any parent knows how the interrogation goes. You answer the first “why?” and a small voice says “but why?” You give another answer only to prompt another “but why?” By the fourth you’ve run out of reasons and blurted the real one you were hoping to keep to yourself. Rather than being difficult, children are just being thorough. We should...
Rage, fear, contempt: an incomplete list, but it captures this country’s overall reaction to United States President Donald Trump, easily the most aggressively-ignorant, narcissistic, emotionally-damaged bully to lead that country in living memory. It is our misfortune to live right next door, although no corner of the globe has escaped Trump’s towering need to humiliate, intimidate, and dominate.
There are a lot of unrealistic Canadians. They’re the ones hoping that the 30-day reprieve before Donald Trump imposes new 50% tariffs on a variety of imports from our country to the United States somehow represents an opportunity to press for a new Canada-US-Mexico agreement (CUSMA). Not a chance. Without explicitly saying it, President Trump and USTR Jamieson Greer have...
Canada’s premiers went to their meeting in Charlottetown this week wanting to talk about health care, but Donald Trump, as usual, was the disruptive force. We know that health care was top of mind for them because one of their meeting days began with a presentation from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, which warned the premiers that massive cuts...
It sure looks like Mark Carney is auditioning to be the next leader of the U.S. Democratic Party. As a Canadian Member of Parliament who represents working families impacted by U.S. tariffs, I want to know why Carney is more interested in playing American politics than being the prime minister of Canada.
On Jan. 20, 2026, Mark Carney delivered a speech at Davos that was deservedly lauded around the world. The prime minister’s address struck a chord both domestically and globally, for two primary reasons. Article content First, he was clear-eyed and candid about the evolving global landscape, in which international institutions are being corroded and even our greatest allies can become...
Some readers have reproached me for my general support of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies. It was essential to the maintenance of America’s position as the world’s greatest power and accordingly to the security of the West, that Trump succeed in rebuilding American strength and credibility, given the crumbling of Europe, the revanchist appetite of Russia, and the naked totalitarian...
Does Canadian conservatism have a problem with patriotism? Do some conservatives feel a greater loyalty to their ideology than their country? Does this lead them to side with Donald Trump and the United States against Canada, in a dispute that turns in part on whether Canada should exist as a country, separate from the United States? Does it also lead...
If there was ever a time to put our collective elbows up, it should have been over a bridge named after Gordie Howe. Instead, we appear to have capitulated to a glorified extortion racket from the Trump administration, one that will have Canada handing over revenues equivalent to half the toll bridge’s net revenues for a period of 15 years...
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives have apparently decided that facts are an obstacle to their crime narrative. The latest crime statistics from Statistics Canada, released this week, show the overall crime severity index in Canada fell five per cent in 2025. The conventional crime rate fell two per cent. The violent crime severity index declined and the non-violent index was also down...
A century ago on New Year’s Day, a massive billboard went up over a central London Underground station. It displayed a map flipped on its side, with Britain at the centre of world. Lines radiated from the island, connecting it with the far-reaching British Empire. “Buy Empire goods from home and overseas,” the advertisement read.
Here’s the thing about awful, soul-destroying relationships: sometimes, you come out on the other end a stronger, better person. It’s hard to see the benefits when you’re constantly being lied to, cheated on and disparaged. It’s emotionally exhausting and you know you need to get out, but you signed a lease together and you need his income to make the...
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer grew up in a mobile home in Paradise, Calif. He insists that it wasn’t in a mobile home park, it was just a mobile home. That should tell you something about the man charged with implementing Donald Trump’s trade policies.
As I write this, there are 912 days until noon on January 20th, 2029. That will be the moment, at the latest, that Donald Trump will no longer be president of the United States. Between here and there, anything is possible, but certain things are more probable than others. Donald Trump’s affinity for tariffs on products, whether they are protected...
On a week that Donald Trump has been throwing his weight around with Canada, there is something deeply satisfying in hearing Premier Doug Ford punch back. “I’m tired of the bully trying to take our lunch money all the time,” Ford said about Trump’s latest round of punitive tariff threats. “We always seem to be on our back heels. We...
If Canadians think that our problems with our neighbours will go away once their leader is enjoying his reward — either in the hereafter or a federal prison — we should contemplate the profound and irrational unfriendliness his followers have displayed in the past week. Robin Williams once said that Canada is “like a really nice apartment over a meth lab.”
We were best friends. Great neighbours. Our economies intertwined and we sold lots of things to one another. Crossing a border felt more like visiting a relative than a different country.
Donald Trump is counting on Canada having weak resolve — freaking out and turning on each other and crawling to him with fresh concessions, in the face of his latest menacing of our economy. The next month will be about proving him wrong. And so far, we’re not off to a half-bad start.
Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 – yes, that tariff act, aka the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the law that famously turned a stock market crash into a worldwide depression – authorizes the President of the United States to impose tariffs on imports from foreign countries that impose “any unreasonable charge, exaction, regulation, or limitation which is not equally...
Canadians are shaking off months of economic pessimism as worries about weak growth and higher energy prices fade. The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index rose to 52.55 in the week ended July 24, up from the recent trough of 46.31 at the beginning of April. A reading above 50 indicates net positive views.
Toronto police say officers investigating a shooting at the U.S. Consulate early Monday morning engaged in a high-speed pursuit of the suspect vehicle on the Don Valley Parkway before suspending the chase amid safety concerns. The incident, which occurred at the University Avenue building at around 4:45 a.m., comes about four months after the building was struck by gunfire in...
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is set to open to motorists today after months of controversy over financial aspects of the project. In a February social media post, U.S. President Donald Trump insisted the United States would have to be compensated before he would allow the bridge to open. He falsely claimed the $6.4-billion structure connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit...
The former chair of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) says he’s wary about whether the Gordie Howe International Bridge will open Monday. Dwight Duncan was in attendance at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday morning, alongside many other local, provincial, and federal dignitaries. Duncan says it’s unfortunate that officials from the United States were not at the event - the way...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is announcing byelections will be held in August for three electoral districts in Ontario, Quebec and B.C. Constituents in Beaches--East York, Chicoutimi--Le Fjord and North Vancouver--Capilano will head to the polls on Aug. 31. The Beaches--East York seat in Ontario was vacated by Nate Erskine-Smith, a former federal housing minister, who intended to run for leader...
Israel is pitching itself to Canada as a technology partner that can offer tangible solutions and safer artificial intelligence, despite the heavy strains on the bilateral relationship over wars in the Middle East. "Canada and Israel are both countries that are very much looking to export technologies, to open new markets and to solve problems that also exist elsewhere," Israeli...
Mark Carney can call the four byelections at any time between now and the end of this year. After years of advising candidates in elections, Braeden Caley is learning one lesson in his own campaign the hard way: wear sensible shoes. Earlier this week, with two door-knocking sessions on either side of a more formal event, the new Liberal candidate...
For decades, Canada’s official policy on nuclear weapons has been that they shouldn’t exist, and there is no sign that principle is about to be abandoned. But for reasons of history and geography, Canada is also one of the world's non-nuclear countries with the easiest technical path to a nuclear weapon. And because of the particular design of its CANDU...
Canada’s strained trade relationship with the United States was among the major advocacy issues at the federal level in June with the domestic fruit and vegetables sector holding out hope for a renewal of North America’s trilateral free trade pact, despite the deal’s future left in doubt by U.S. President Donald Trump. “[The Canada-United States-Mexico-Agreement] still exists. We are advocating...
One year into her new job as commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Lt.-Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet said she could see an immediate effect of the federal government's defence spending boost: RCAF pilots are spending more time in the air. In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, Speiser-Blanchet also acknowledged that preparing the entire service for what she described...
The Conservative shadow minister for Canada-U.S. relations is calling on Ottawa to provide its negotiation plan with U.S. President Donald Trump at an emergency meeting. Shuv Majumdar says in a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney that the Conservatives want an emergency meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade next week, and Ottawa needs to table its written plans...
Up till now, Trump's tariffs and his treatment of Canada produced discomfort but little more than that, in the US. There are signs this may be changing. Americans don’t like tariffs as a general concept. Our research in the US last year found that by a 70-30 margin, Americans think freer trade is more in their interests than tariffs.
Advocates say the federal government's decision to halt Ontario's plan for a major expansion of Billy Bishop airport will spare Toronto's waterfront from a serious rollback on rehabilitation. Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence, says the project would involve "massive destruction" of the Toronto Islands after billions of dollars invested in waterfront rehabilitation over the past couple of decades.
A Canadian intern at NATO has been arrested on suspicions of espionage. Belgium's federal prosecutor says in a statement the female intern of Chinese origin is suspected of spying on behalf of a third country. She is also suspected of being a member of a criminal organization.
The federal government says it received more than 21,000 emails on proposed changes to how major projects are reviewed and will spend the coming weeks combing over those submissions. A window for public feedback on the proposed changes closed Wednesday. The government said it will publish a report summarizing the submissions by the end of the summer.
Interprovincial trade barriers were back in the spotlight this week as Canada's premiers mused about how to deal with new tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump at their annual summer meeting. On Tuesday, a new deal was announced that will see nine provinces across Canada introduce direct-to-consumer alcohol sales following an agreement signed by their premiers. It's the latest...
The federal government has rejected Ontario's plan to expand Toronto's Billy Bishop airport to accommodate jets on a longer runway. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said public consultations on the future of the island airport got feedback on a range of issues including transportation, noise, environmental impacts and quality of life. The government received more than 87,000 responses, he said. "We...
Federal food strategy pledging $1B to establish up to 40 hubs across Canada/ About 20 years ago, P.E.I. farmer Rose Viaene watched her husband David take their tractor out into their farm fields and destroy their garlic crop — an act of defiance born out of frustration with Canada's large grocery chains. Viaene said before then, their garlic was sold...
'We're going to put a big tariff on Canada because of the smoke,' Trump tells reporters. U.S. President Donald Trump returned to making tariff-related threats against Canada on Friday afternoon, restating his intent to impose tariffs in retaliation for wildfire smoke drifting across the border into the United States. "We're going to put a big tariff on Canada because of...
A citizen-led petition seeking to force a vote on Alberta quitting Canada is officially successful. Elections Alberta announced Friday it verified nearly 223,000 signatures out of almost 280,000 valid names counted. The petition needed almost 178,000 signatures to be successful. Despite the result, the document is largely moot.
The governments of Canada and the United Arab Emirates say they have concluded negotiations on a free-trade agreement. International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu told a press conference in Toronto on Friday that the next steps include legal review, the signing of the deal and ratification. UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani al-Zeyoudi said the agreement was reached in 47 days...
Officials in Windsor, Ont., are celebrating next week’s planned opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge at a Canada-only ribbon-cutting ceremony on the Canadian side of the structure. Representatives from the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario, Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, Bridging North America, and members of the Howe family gathered Friday to officially inaugurate the bridge.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that the original deal on the disbursement of revenues from the Gordie Howe International Bridge “no longer stands” after his administration struck a new agreement, raising more questions about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s own claims about the arrangement. Trump’s post on Truth Social came during a ribbon-cutting ceremony being held by Canadian officials in...
Public servants have just hours left to apply for the federal government's early retirement program. The deadline lands at 2:59 a.m. ET and the Treasury Board website says more than 9,100 applications had been received as of Tuesday, though final numbers aren't expected until at least next week.
A Canada-only ceremony took place Friday to mark the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, as the Liberal government faces more questions about a new revenue-sharing deal with the U.S. A joint celebration with the U.S. on the bridge connecting Ontario and Michigan was cancelled earlier this week. President Donald Trump said on social media Friday that Canada "disinvited"...
Elmer MacKay, a Nova Scotia politician who spent more than two decades representing the Central Nova district in the federal government, has died. His son, Peter MacKay, who also represented the Central Nova district in Ottawa, confirmed his father's death in a post to the X social media platform. The younger Mackay said his father died at the age of...
Donald Trump’s latest 50 per cent tariffs against Canada would likely be shot down in any court challenge, trade law experts say. Even though he’s theoretically on firmer legal ground than he was with so-called ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs which were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in February, Trump still needs to prove that Canada is “discriminating” against American trade...
Over two days in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney will try to stanch $1 trillion of foreign investment flight over the last decade. You can’t fault the man for lack of ambition. Carney is presiding over what he’s calling the Canada Investment Summit — a gathering of international business leaders, CEOs and institutional investors aimed at recouping the losses over...
The Carney government's financial support for the oil and gas industry amounts to breaking a federal commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, according to environmental advocates. They say the measures represent further federal backsliding on climate policy at a time when oil industry earnings are on the rise. After the Trudeau Liberals promised to phase out "inefficient" fossil fuel...
An already heavily trafficked B.C. estuary is under pressure to industrialize more for the proposed project. Shahin Dashtgard, a sedimentologist from Simon Fraser University, holds an open palmful of muddied sand from the Fraser Valley in Delta, B.C. This material, known as sub-surface, is weak, loose and water saturated, and it's one of the main challenges of building Alberta's proposed...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to clear the way for an executive order from President Donald Trump that could dramatically change mail-in voting.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Senate Majority Leader John Thune cancel the chamber's upcoming August break until senators pass a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill, even as Republicans lack the votes to advance it.
A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that in nearly half of U.S. states halted President Donald Trump's executive order to create a federal list of eligible voters and limit delivery of mail ballots only to people on that list.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Trump's tariffs are headed to court -- again.
Officials in Windsor, Ont., are celebrating next week’s planned opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge at a Canada-only ribbon-cutting ceremony on the Canadian side of the structure. Representatives from the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario, Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, Bridging North America, and members of the Howe family gathered Friday to officially inaugurate the bridge.
Fuel costs are on the rise in Canada as geopolitical turmoil drives the price of crude oil to its highest level in more than a month. Gasbuddy.com, which crowdsources pump price data from across Canada and the U.S, says the Canadian national average now sits above $1.80 a litre -- a two-cent increase from a day earlier and an eight-cent...
As the ambassador rose to address a roomful of suits, he held a plastic shot glass of spirit. “To U.S.-Canadian friendship, partnership and success,” said Pete Hoekstra, Washington’s ambassador to Canada, bringing the cup to his mouth. It was before 10 a.m. on Monday morning – part of a new tradition, he said, of raising a glass at forums like...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canada is doing foreign policy differently by reviving stagnant relationships with countries on multiple continents in pursuit of trade. "It is diplomacy like Canada has not done before, in the recent past," Anand said Monday in an interview from Islamabad, where she was meeting with Pakistan's foreign minister. It's the first visit by a...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and other Canadian officials offered congratulations to new U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham — while suggesting there are areas in which the two countries can strengthen relations. Burnham was officially sworn in on Monday, becoming the fifth British prime minister in four years and the seventh in a decade. Carney offered congratulations to Burnham in a...
A generation that expected to enjoy a higher standard of living than its parents instead risks inheriting slower growth, fewer opportunities, and permanently diminished prosperity.
Chery Automobile has become one of China’s most important global automakers. Less well known in North America than BYD or Geely, Chery has nevertheless spent more than two decades building an export-oriented business across emerging and developed markets. The company’s growing interest in Canada therefore presents both an opportunity and a policy challenge. For Canadian consumers, Chery could offer more...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has indicated a desire for change in the federal public service to deliver on the Liberal government’s Make Canada Strong agenda. He hopes to realign the country’s economic and political relations to respond to new global and North American realities. The question is whether the public service has the capacity to effectively and efficiently execute such...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
The following depicts an imagined yet realistic dialogue involving Canadian and American negotiators working to resolve their differences while sticking to their rhetorical guns. I have been in these kinds of trenches. Believe me, this is how negotiators speak to each other and play with one another. There’s generally less rancour than readers might expect, especially those of you who...
Peter Nicholson: Thanks, Chris. Since the events of July 2 we have quite a bit more information on the agreement between Canada and Alberta over the rules that are going to govern both the pipeline and oil sands production developments. I think there is a growing recognition that a pipeline shouldn’t be a “field of dreams” – that it is...
Prime Minister Carney has made clear from the outset of his time in office that without a commitment to implement the Pathways carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, there would be no new bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast. The expectation was formalized in the Nov. 27 Alberta-Ottawa MOU and the May 15 Implementation Agreement. The oil sands industry has...
Today we talk with one of the most thoughtful voices on the topic: Ben Woodfinden. Ben is an academic, a thinker about Conservative politics, worked for Pierre Poilievre in the run-up to and during the 2025 election, and has been active in this debate for the last couple of weeks.
Today, the Gordie Howe Bridge is set to officially open to the public, connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan. Its ceremonial opening on Friday was a one-sided affair. It was originally supposed to be a joint ceremony with U.S. officials, but that was cancelled after President Donald Trump announced his plans to hit Canada with a new whack of tariffs...
US President Trump echoed his promise to retaliate against Canada for our wildfire smoke drifting south. It comes as more than 900 fires actively burn across the country, with a number of communities evacuated from their homes.
The affordability crisis goes well beyond the monthly inflation rate. It’s about cost of living, for sure, but also low productivity, stagnant wages, and wounded spirits. On the latest episode of the Sage Podcast, former Newfoundland and Labrador Finance Minister, Cathy Bennett and former B.C. Cabinet Secretary Don Wright join hosts Edward Greenspon and Allan Gregg to talk over this...
